The U.S. International Trade Commission on July 8 voted unanimously, 6-0, that there is a reasonable indication that domestically-produced ammonium sulfate is materially injured or threatened with material injury by reason of imports from China. As a result, the case now proceeds to the U.S. Department of Commerce which will investigate whether imports from China are being imported into the U.S. at dumped and subsidized prices.
The deadline for DOC’s preliminary determination is Aug. 18, 2016 for the countervailing duty investigation and Nov. 1, 2016 in the antidumping investigation. If the DOC’s preliminary countervailing duty determination is affirmative, AS imports from China will be subject to provisional countervailing duties, requiring importers to post a bond to cover the provisional duties. Affirmative final determinations by DOC and ITC would result in the imposition of final antidumping and countervailing duty orders in the spring of 2017, which would remain in effect for at least five years.
The ITC initiated the investigation pursuant to the May 24, 2016 petitions filed by PCI Nitrogen LLC on behalf of the U.S. AS industry. The DOC published its notice initiating the antidumping and countervailing duty investigations June 22, 2016. The DOC found estimated dumping margins of up to 493.46 percent for China.